


Amazon Lets Stiles Down

by therudestflower



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Future Fic, Gen, M/M, Still Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 08:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3929578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therudestflower/pseuds/therudestflower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles finds Isaac at the university bookstore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

According to the internet only chumps bought their textbooks at the campus bookstore.

Stiles was not a chump. He may have started as the underdog in high school, but he was going to do everything right at UC Davis. And that started with lining his dorm room in mountain ash (and maybe telling his rando roommate that it was his dogs ashes) and waiting patiently for his Amazon shipment of textbooks to arrive.

Unfortunately, two weeks in his Criminology textbook had not arrived and it turned out it was a lot harder to fake an assignment when you professor wrote the textbook. He got 0′s on three assignments before admitting chump-defeat and heading to the campus bookstore.

Thankfully the only person in the store was the cashier, who was slouched so severely behind a monitor that Stiles could only identify their presence by their elbow, meaning Stiles was still under the radar. Stiles wasn’t exactly drowning in friends, but the few people he was friendly with had heard plenty about his mad book buying skills. There were only so many conversation topics he could bring to the table when his entire life was werewolves and carnage. 

Stiles quickly found his book and slid it onto the counter. He was reaching into his backpack for his wallet when the cashier said “Oh for Christ sakes” in a very judgmental tone. 

“Hey! Amazon–” Stiles stopped talking when he saw the cashier for the first time. It took a fraction of a second for him to process that he recognized him, and another fraction that it was Isaac.

Wearing a cardigan and glaring, as usual.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Stiles asked incredulously. 

“Working,” Isaac said. He scanned the textbook. Stiles noted that his hands were shaking, barely noticeable but they were. “That’ll be $174.98.”

“Are you insane?” Stiles waved his hands. “That’s all you have to say?”

“Prices are non-negotiable.” Isaac wasn’t looking at Stiles, and he had the same blank face on he used to in class or whenever thing someone asked him something serious. Like:

“You think you can disappear to France for three years than show up like it’s nothing? Scott doesn’t go here. Your tracking skills are way off.”

Isaac pulled a face. “I’m not tracking Scott.”

“What are you doing here? I’m the only one here, you’re not here for me are you? Cause I will tear your werewolf ass apart.”

“You’re a real egomaniac, you know that? Pay me.”

"These prices are outrageous."

"I don't set them" Isaac snapped. "Pay or get out."

Stiles waved his wallet in the air. If this was his only leverage he'd take it. There was still no one else in the bookstore. "You want your supervisor to find out you're turning down a customer? I'm going to pay. First, you have to answer 174.98 questions."

The blank face was back. "Calm down. You're not at cop yet. I don't owe you shit."

"I'm going to be a forensic psychologist, not that it's any of your business," Stiles wasn't exactly totally sure he wanted to anything, but he refused to be one an undeclared waffler. "Do you actually go here, or did Derek put you up to stalking me? Or was it Chris?"

"You think someone sent me here to spy on you?"

"Well--"

"You have problems. I don't care about you. I don't care about the scooby gang. I don't even want to know what you idiots have been doing the past few years." Isaac glanced out the window. "You know that it's possible to be a werewolf without almost dying every Thursday. Especially if you don't run with hunters," he spat. 

"What are you doing here then?"

"I. go. to. school. here. I have a scholarship. Do you want to see my class schedule?"

"Yeah, that'd be helpful!" Stiles said. 

Over the past three years Stiles hadn't thought about Isaac that much. At first it was hard to have him off the team when werewolf drama exploded, and Stiles sometimes--sometimes--missed having someone to argue with. Just as a way to blow off steam, not because Isaac was enjoyable to be around. Still, Scott and Derek moped about Isaac being gone sometimes, and Chris never explained why Isaac didn't come back with him. Or maybe he did. Stiles really didn't think about Isaac until he was standing right in his face, demanding all of Stiles' money. 

"I have to work." Isaac ground out. "Pay up."

A willowy woman suddenly came out from the store room, making them both jump. "Everything okay here?" She was definitely a supervisor, based on the way Isaac's posture shifted. 

"Yeah," Isaac replied. "It's $174.98."

Stiles sighed and pulled out his credit card. Not only was he running into one of his least favorite non-enemies, he was about to drain his bank account. Isaac swiped it with more force than necessary. "Is your phone number the same?" Stiles asked.

"Nope," Isaac said. "Have a nice day, sir."

Stiles accepted the bag and glanced between Isaac and the manager. Maybe now that the transaction was over she'd leave. After a few awkward moments of hovering Stiles sighed and put the textbook in his backpack. 

"We are going to talk," Stiles said. "We go to the same school, and I have Scott and the 'scooby gang' on my side. This place isn't too big for me to find you and force you to--"

Isaac sighed. "Meet me outside at five. Just don't tell anyone I'm here okay?"

"If Scott calls me--"

"Stiles!"

"Yeah sure fine!" Stiles said. A rush of girls came into the bookstore and Stiles started walking out, glancing over his shoulder as he went. 

"Ex-boyfriend?" he heard the manager ask.

"He wishes," Isaac replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a practice draft to get back in the habit of writing. Based on insertintelligence's prompt:  
> "Stiles is shocked to find Isaac in, of all places, *gasp* his favorite bookstore the next town over. Can be done post current cannon where Isaac comes back to town, but can’t build up the courage to confront everyone."


	2. Chapter 2

The next three hours passed incredibly slowly and all at once. Whenever there wasn't a customer, Isaac stared at the clock on the computer monitor, splitting the time left until 5. At 4:20, 8 groups of 5 minutes. At 4:59, three groups of twenty seconds.

Before the last group of twenty seconds Lenora came out from the storage room and crowded into his personal space, forcing Isaac to move away from the register or get pushed away. 

"Time to go," she said, logging him out of the register.

"I can stay longer," Isaac offered. "I don't have a night class."

"Nope, work study only covers ten hours. You're capped out for the week my friend." 

The bookstore had two exits and windows that didn't open. Isaac thought that must be a fire code violation for a store this size. In his opinion, no room should have less than three exit options. Lenora had told him to never to open the back door except for deliveries. And Stiles was not worth crawling though the air ducts. 

Isaac grabbed his messenger bag and headed out the door. He could smell Stiles, and hear him tapping his fingers against his leg. He'd never forgotten Stiles' scent, and seeing him for a few minutes was enough to get a lock on it. 

Stile was walking in a circle on the fountain outside the bookstore typing on his phone. Isaac surged forward and snatched it out of his hand. 

"Hey!"

"I told you not to tell anyone!"

Stiles reached for the phone, which Isaac held over his head. Stiles all but jumped to reach it. Thank god Isaac was still taller than him. "I'm texting my lab partner. Who's the egomaniac now, huh?"

Isaac pulled his arm down, twisting so the phone was still out of Stiles' reach. 

"To Jaime: hey it's stiles!! we're going to crush orgo!! crush it!!! get pumped" 

He went back a page and saw he'd only texted Scott in the last three hours. Feeling lightheaded, Isaac scanned over their conversation. He didn't want to invade Scott's privacy. Reading quickly he surmised that Scott was going to Beacon Hills Community College and someone named Malia was driving him crazy. 

Why hadn't Scott left Beacon Hills? Was he suicidal?

Isaac handed Stiles his phone. Stiles huffed and shoved his phone into his backpack, as though it was now permanently out of Isaac's reach. "Satisfied?" Isaac nodded. The whole thing was stupid. Stiles was right, it was pretty big headed of him to think Stiles was furiously texting about him. "Are we going to talk here, or do you want to go back to my dorm?"

No way Isaac was giving Stiles the home advantage. "We're going for a drive."

\- 

Isaac had only had his car for a few months. It was a beater canvas top convertible from the 90's. He liked the idea of having a car that was older than him, one that he could tear apart if the mood struck him.

Stiles did not like it as much. He wasted time walking the perimeter and poking the roof. "Did you get the car facts on this thing?"

The past year and a half hadn't changed Stiles much, as far as Isaac could tell. He still waved his hands and blubbered on like an idiot. Stiles never had any concept of when to stop talking, he talked just to fill the air. Whenever Stiles was kidnapped he probably tried to get his captors to join his MMO guild just to pass the time. 

Finally Stiles got in the car and Isaac followed. After a few tries he got the engine running and began the drive off campus. "We're driving?" Stiles asked incredulous. "How do I know you're not part of a new pack and kidnapping me? Are you kidnapping me? Oh my god Isaac don't you dare undo your flimsy redemption act. Everyone's still rooting for you not to be a terrible person."

Theory proven, Isaac couldn't help by smirk. "I'm not kidnapping you. And I'm not in a pack, not really. It's just harder to be overheard if you're on the move."

"Is someone following you? Are there hunters on this campus? Scott and Deaton came here specifically to scope the place out and they said nada."

Deaton had told him as much in an email, but didn't say that Stiles was considering UC Davis too. He should have figured Deaton hadn't driven two and a half hours just for Isaac's sake. He tried to avoid asking Deaton favors, but wasn't about to move from England without any idea of what he was walking into. 

"There aren't, we're as safe as it gets." Isaac pulled into a residential area, taking turns at random.

"Then why aren't we cozy in my dorm room? Or yours. Do you live on campus?"

"None of your business," Isaac replied. He had a studio a mile off campus, and was purposely driving in the opposite direction. "Where's everyone else? They're all alive right?"

"Yeah, everyone you know I think. Oh, remember that psych ward girl who was super into you?"

"Yeah."

"Turned out she was evil, putting out contracts to kill people. Crazy, right?"

Isaac glanced at Stiles to see if he was kidding. He wasn't going to ask questions. He could not care about the scooby gang. He had his own life. "Who is Malia?"

"You know Malia."

"No I don't." 

"She's the werecoyote. We saved her."

"Oh right." That was a stupid day. It was probably the last time one of Stiles and Scott's random rescue missions turned out alright. "She's alive?"

"Um, yeah." Stiles started fiddling with the sun visor. "She, uh, kind of joined the gang after you left. She and Scott have a place together."

"They're dating?" Isaac asked, not bothering to keep the disgust out of his voice.

"No they're just roommates," Stiles said quickly.

"Thank god. What kind of cognitive stage would she be at after living as a coyote for a decade? That'd be like Scott dating a child."

"It's actually more complicated than you think, but I wouldn't expect you to understand it," Stiles said. "You don't know Malia. She's very normal."

"I seriously doubt that."

Stiles snapped the sun visor shut. "Hey, it's what 80 degrees today? Where's the scarf? I bet France had tons of nifty scarves."

"It did," Isaac replied easily. He didn't wear them as often in America though, it drew more attention than he wanted. Stiles hadn't changed his looks much though. He was wearing a hoodie, but had thankfully given up on message t-shirts. He'd stuck with the long hair, which Isaac had privately thought was a good choice. It made his ears less obvious. 

"Have you been in France all this time?" Stiles asked abruptly. "Chris didn't tell us much. Or anything. Like, at all. It was like you didn't go with him."

Isaac chose to ignore any hurt that brought. "There wasn't much to tell. I was in Europe the whole time." He didn't know if he trusted Stiles yet, he wasn't about to spill a blow by blow of the past year an a half.

"Why'd you come back? Europe run out of scarves?"

"For school."

"They don't have schools in France?"

"None of your business" Isaac said. He hadn't taken the time to consider why he only applied to colleges in California, even though it would have been easier to just stay in England. His grandparents asked him a thousand times why, and he never answered. They were very easy to distract. "Why are you going here? Redding is closer to all the action. You can't run around playing hero with Scott from here."

Stiles sighed and crossed his arms. "None of your business."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know nothing about any California state school. This is still a draft and writing exercise.


End file.
